On Strength of iPhone 6 Sales, Apple has a Record 33-Percent of South Korean Market

Samsung just cannot get a sales break anywhere, including its own country of South Korea! What really pours salt into the wound, it is at their arch nemesis, Apple, providing the original wound. According to Counterpoint Research’s Monthly Market Pulse report, Japan (always a popular spot for Apple), Korea and China registered higher than expected sales due to the popularity of the new and larger iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models. The lower prices on in the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s has helped boost overall sales, especially in the emerging markets, as well during the last quarter of 2014.

In South Korea, Samsung’s home country, Apple captured a record 33-percent of the total smartphone sales in November…challenging Samsung for the first time on its own turf. According to the chart below, Samsung fell from 60-percent of the smartphone market in September to only 46-percent in November. LG, another Korean-based company fell from about 28-percent to 14-percent. Counterpoint’s Research Director based in Korea, Tom Kang notes:

“No foreign brand has gone beyond the 20-percent market share mark in the history of Korea’s smartphone industry. It has always been dominated by the global smartphone leader, Samsung. But iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have made a difference here, denting the competition’s phablet sales. Korea being the world’s highest penetrated phablet market (handsets with 5″ above screens) earnestly needed a large screen iPhone for quite a time and now this thirst has been quenched. If there was a better supply of iPhone 6 & 6 Plus 64GB & 128GB models (popular SKUs*) during the month then Apple’s share could have climbed to the 40% level.”

What is really upsetting is the analyst is saying that Apple could have reached 40-percent of sales if they had more of the new iPhones in stock. Samsung has already had their wake-up call, but this has got to be devastating for this to happen in their own country. The year 2015 will definitely be an interesting one as we wait and see just how well sales of Samsung’s new flagship Galaxy S6 does when it debuts this spring – we should get a peak of it next month at the MWC show in Barcelona. A lot is riding on this important release and could help shape Samsung’s future.

Please hit us up on our Google+ Page and let us know if you went out and grabbed a new iPhone or are you getting ready for the new Samsung Galaxy S6…as always, we would love to hear from you.